Sunday, February 21, 2010

I am happy to say we are back to a normal trash pick up! They acually picked up on Tuesday (thank you Fairfax County). The county has widened our street's passage and no new snow has accumulated. Whew. I am beginning to like the flurries that don't stick! The squirrels are all back to fighting over peanuts and trying to figure out how to get into the birdfeeder, BUT FAILING HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Ahem. Birdies are very happy and munching away at the constantly refilled feeder. Most of the snow is off the deck and the front bushes, but I am worried about the azelea. It has been nice watching the olympics, but I am too old to go to bed this late! Gotta get to bed by 11 latest! Josh leaves for NC today or tomorrow... it was really nice to see him, and it won't be so long til next visit, but I am still going to miss him. I don't interact with him as much as dh does (it is that INFJ thing) but it just feels nice to have him around. At least he is on the same continent!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Yes, more snow. Tonight. I love snow. I do. I just have enough thank you, plenty. Really. No more needed, not tonight, not Monday, not Tuesday, none. Thank you.

But the birds are flocking round in droves, and eating more seeds than ever. I have smeared pinecones with peanutbutter and bacon grease and rolled them in seeds. The squirrels carried some off and I wired some to the posts on our deck. Cardinals, jays, woodpeckers and more have been snacking. The squirrels are quite protective of the peanuts we through out. As my dh was tossing out nuts, one of our cats snuck out and found himself nose to nose with a (much smaller but very interested in peanuts) squirrel. It was the feline, not the sciurid who backed down! That squirrel was not going to give up a single nut!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

They are running out of names for the storms! (This one is pretty lame.) I think I liked Snowpocolypse best. I am running out of energy to fight the snow. I am also running out of room for piling said snow. The piles are not just higher than my head, but higher than my 6'3"+ husband! The pile on the table on the deck is prodigeous, and I am not moving it, it will have to melt! It already lost some from the "warmth" we had on Monday and Tuesday, as shown by the icikles above the table. Those may have to be brought down, they are giant and sharp. Shudder. The cats finally ventured out to the deck when we had a sufficient amount of shovelling done. They needed to get their dead herb munchies and look for birdies. We were worried about the weight of the snow, it was really quite heavy, and there was quite alot of it, so we shovelled. And shovelled. It was also well compacted. Trench Meister was much better at getting the compacted stuff into handle-able chunks. I am afraid I am just a wimp. Sigh.

Well, well, nothing to do but go downstairs and knit! And drink cocoa and tea. And eat gummibaren! I believe I will watch Born of Hope tonight!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

We have barely gotten the snow from the last blizzard of about 30" piled up, and now we are expecting another this afternoon. It was supposed to have begun this morning at 0900, but is now slated for afternoon. THAT MEANS THE SYSTEM IS MOVING SLOWLY. Crud! That means it will stay over us longer. Oh my. oh my oh my oh my oh my. Oh my.

Note that the piles of snpw are higher than the cars. They are higher than our heads. The storm drains are all covered. The door to the deck was frozen shut this morning from the melt yesterday... even though the temp wasn't higher than about 32, much melting occurred. Yup, large puddles of now well frozen ice now litter the roads too. Sigh. The trip in is likely to be a nasty one. Better get going.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

At least that is what the weather channel is calling it. I am calling it one heck of a storm. I will take pics in the morning sun (such as it is or will be) for the final tally but this was quite early in the day, and it snowed til about 2000, or 8pm for you non sailor types. I spent the day quite happily stitching inbetween shoveling and salting and warming the men and finding my son and the shovel and restocking the birdfeeder and peanutbuttering and seeding a pinecone ane and, well, you get the idea. It was pretty at night tho, don't you think?

I grew up around plenty of snow. Germany, Chicago, Nebraska, (the latter has nothing between the north pole and it other than a line of stunted linden bushes in South Dakota). The difference is that those places all had the equiptment and funds and plans in place to handle even a 30" snow without it doing much more than slowing things down. Except that little snow in Lincoln where we had about 28 inches overnight. But we were back in business the following day. Here in Northern VA, we spent our small snow allotment already, haven't enough trucks etc anyway and they don't build the streets and neighborhoods condusive to plowing. One trying to do our road (trying is the operative word) drove in, dropped the bucket and backed out. Better than nothin' but not all that effective. We will all be out tomorrow again to keep at it. Problem is it is a long 1/8th mile to the first road they can actually plow... but they haven't yet, according to my Marine son. His car was on the other side of the truck who tried to get out and managed to get stuck in the road, crosswise. Sigh. I am on the wrong side. My car looks like a Japanese van... the tall ones! It's all snow. Is it really worth it to get out tomorrow?